


Laundry Duty

by idioticintentions



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Awkward situations, Fluff, M/M, Matchmaking, canon-verse/ish, i don't get thiiiiis, what do you tag?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-06
Updated: 2014-03-06
Packaged: 2018-01-14 18:45:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1276918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idioticintentions/pseuds/idioticintentions
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hanji catches Eren in his crush on corporal Levi. Drafting Erwin, they decide to play matchmaker.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Laundry Duty

**Author's Note:**

> This is somewhat AUish in that I'm saying Levi's squad is not dead. They do not come up in the story, but I thought I should mention that. Also, if you see any glaring errors, comment below or message me on tumblr 'holyspidermanripoffs'. Thanks :D

Given how small their budget was—most going to new weapons and 3DMG—the Survey Corps was always cash strapped. As a result, everyone shared in the chores save for those with an adequate amount of seniority. For the most part Eren hardly minded doing the chores. He looked forward to working in the kitchen because he could sneak food and tending the garden was strangely liberating. The one chore he detested was laundry.

  
The wash board made a rough groan each time he scrubbed a piece of clothing against it. His fingers were starting to wrinkle from over exposure to the water. As the hours stretched out endlessly, the pile of dirty laundry beside him seeming to never end, he started hoping in vain Hanji might drag him away for an impromptu experiment. The relief never came. The hours dragged on.

Eren should consider himself lucky, he supposes. Since most of his squad, alright all of his squad, has sufficient seniority to get out of chores duty, the amount that he gets assigned is very small. Even now, he is only technically doing his squads and the Commander Erwin’s laundry; but the lightened load still seems insurmountable.  
For last, Eren had separated out Levi’s laundry. He knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the corporal would skewer him on his 3DMG blade if his cravat did not sparkle (the coproral’s words, not Eren’s; the titan-shifter for one had no idea how to make a cravat sparkle). With a groan that shakes him to his bones, Eren slides over Levi’s pile of laundry.

He just has to do this, he reminds himself, and then he is done.

He stares at it for a moment. Half his brain feels the thrill of fear if he were to do this poorly. The other half is feeling something different. Eren scratches his head to hopefully dislodge this other feeling, but it is difficult to ignore. Levi is technically his guardian. Levi is most definitely his superior. He is also super hot and makes Eren all flustered. Part of him sometimes even thirsts for the punishment because then Levi touches him and Eren can smell the mix of bergamot and clove on his skin. Right now, with mementos of Levi so close, Eren finds it very hard to ignore his crush.

Then Eren gets an idea; an idea he suspects he had all along. Looking around to make sure the wash room is clear, he slowly picks up Levi’s shirt. It hardly looks dirty except for the residue left by the 3DMG rubbing over the chest. Eren presses it to his nose, breathing in deeply despite something in his brain screaming ‘this is weird’ ‘what if you get caught’. But his stubbornness seems to override these fears and Eren keeps it pressed to his face a little longer.  
Suddenly, a footfall sounds in the room and Eren jumps, tossing the shirt into the wash bucket in an attempt to hide the evidence. He turns, face red and eyes wide, expecting to see Levi standing in the doorway, but Hanji is there with a wide grin on her face. The light from the window reflects off her glasses and makes her appear even more manic than usual.

“What are you doing Eren?” she asks quickly, the question bursting out of her.

“Uh—“ Eren stutters, racking his brain for any reason a sane, normal person would be smelling laundry. He draws a blank.

“Or is it a titan thing?” Hanji asks quickly, producing a note pad from her pocket and a pen from behind her ear. “Do you think it might be clothing titan’s thirst for and not actually to kill humans?”

Eren feels lost, but no longer embarrassed. “No,” he says strongly, much more strongly than he feels. He softens when Hanji looks up and he remembers that she is a superior officer. “No, sir,” he corrects. “It is not a titan thing. It was personal.”

Hanji’s eyebrow arches. “Care to explain?”

Eren blushes again and can feel the steam rise off of him. Being a titan shifter really sucks sometimes because any modicum of embarrassment is translated into easily visible vapor that will suddenly surround him.

“Not particularly, sir.” Eren says eventually.

Hanji frowns. Then her eyes glance at the pile, carefully and obviously separated from the others. Then she spots the cravat near the top and she knows. Eren can see the moment she knows because her smile widens and her note taking implements are carefully tucked away.

“I see,” she says with a fine tremor of excitement in her voice. Then she scurries away, leaving the thoroughly embarrassed soldier alone.

Eren has to stick his head in the wash bucket to cool himself down.

Hanji immediately left to see Levi after discovering Eren’s secret. On her way over, she weighed the possibility that the kid could have a weird laundry smelling idiosyncrasy, but she dismissed it. Recently, Petra had personally come to her to ask if titan-shifters may have a propensity for getting overly attached to those higher up the chain of command. Apparently Eren kept stealing glances of Levi in meetings, asking the corporal for special help with 3DMG more often than not, and, as Petra found most concerning of all, he was constantly checking on Levi via ambling by his office door when his schedule put him nowhere near there.

Hanji had to suppress a squee of joy as she realized, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Eren Jaeger had a crush.

Levi is in a meeting with Erwin when she finally arrives Levi is sitting at his desk with his usual bored expression and Erwin is standing on the other side, leaning forward on the desk and scattered papers. Their tones are quiet, discussing basic matters such as resource allocation and if it is necessary to open communication with Military Police about another restock. When Hanji enters, as quietly as she had happened upon Eren no more than 10 minutes before, the two men immediately look to her. Erwin straightens and turns to face her, arms crossing.

“What is it?” Levi asks. His eyes watch her smile widen and a bit of fear skates down his spine. There is going to be another experiment. Her being in his office means she wants him to be a part of it. Erwin is trying to preemptively bite back his amusement at the argument soon to come.

“Well,” Hanji baits, her smile turning somewhat coy. “You two are just never going to believe what happened to me,” she singsongs.

The two officers are thrown off balance. They maintain neutral expressions but quickly pass a glance between them. Erwin smiles softly. “Do tell us what happened,” he prompts.  
Hanji becomes excited, gesturing widely with each word. “I went to go check on Eren, just to see how he was and how he has been sleeping, for science and stuff. And as you know he’s on laundry duty and that’s what he was doing. But not all he was doing.” Hanji pauses for dramatic effect, watching the men’s expression for any sign of interest. Erwin looks intrigued. Levi’s lips are pressed more tightly together and Hanji knows beyond a doubt that he knows. Anyone with a set of eyes and in Levi’s squad definitely knows.

“Well he was sniffing someone’s laundry and can you guess whose?” she says giddily. Erwin’s eyes widen and Levi sighs, pushing away from the desk and standing up.

“Don’t breathe a word to anyone.” Levi says and stalks out of the room. “I’ll have a talk with the brat about how to properly do laundry.”

The door swings shut. Hanji looks to Erwin for his reaction, but the Commander is still frozen in disbelief.

“Was it Petra’s laundry?” the Commander finally hazards.

Hanji shakes her head and adjusts her glasses. “Nope. It was Levi’s,” she says smugly. Then she tacks on with a feral grin: “I think we should set them up.”

Erwin looks pained but not entirely opposed. Romance in the Survey Corps is rare. Having trysts is normal; all the adrenaline from the fight and near certain death does wonders for one’s libido. But crushes and matchmaking, well, this may actually be a first for the Survey Corps.

“Erwin,” Hanji begs.

The Commander sighs. “Okay, I can figure something out. I think.”

It’s all about scheduling, Erwin decides. He sends Levi’s squad, sans Levi, to go bring a message to Military Police about their restock request. Then he requests that Levi work on Eren’s hand to hand combat and conveniently schedules everyone else for 3D maneuver exercises in the forest at the same time. Levi and Eren are alone in base camp, the heat of the summer pouring down on them and making their shirts stick.

Eren has his hands up in front of his face, fists clenched tightly. A drop of sweat runs down his spine and more slicks across his brow. Levi, who is in a similar stance across from him, appears to be in little discomfort despite the sweat Eren can see pricking his brow. For the past hour, the corporal had had Eren fighting against a mannequin and now Levi deemed him fit enough to spar.

“I don’t want you to pull your punches, brat.” Levi intones, eyes skirting Eren’s form. His back foot is a little too balanced on his toe and his front is too on its heel. It’s a quirk that will take training to correct.

Eren feels the scrutiny of Levi’s stare like a physical embrace. He flushes thinking about Hanji’s discovery a few days prior. How he had smelled Levi’s shirt and she had seen, had known. Through the week, Levi had shown no sign of any knowledge of Hanji’s discovery. There was only the brief talk Levi had about how Eren should swap the water out at least once or twice when washing. No mention of smelling Levi’s shirt. No mention of his crush. But now, alone together on the sparring field without another soul for miles, Eren has a feeling his luck for flying under the radar has run out.

His luck in other things also runs out when Levi punches him while he’s distracted. His forearm is not brought up fast enough to cut the blow, the corporal’s fist catching him hard in the cheek and side of his nose. Eren chokes on blood as he stumbles backwards, cursing.

Levi steps forward with a sigh, hands dropped so he can tend to Eren, when the younger soldier deals him a blow to the stomach.

To say that gets the corporal’s blood pumping is a lie. The fire in Eren’s eyes nearly ignites his bones. Levi smirks as they come together in a clash. Levi is fast, dealing quick rabbit jabs when Eren lunges overtly into a hit. The blood is dripping onto his chin, over his mouth, and the disgust Levi normally feels at something so dirty is turned into something different by the adrenaline. If he did not have such monumental reservations about harboring feelings for his squad members, Levi may admit in the secret part of him that Eren looked positively attractive with blood painting his lips.

Eren watches as Levi’s eyes stray to his mouth. For a moment he feels frozen, especially when Levi unconsciously licks his lip, eyes then flicking up to meet his. But the gaze of the corporal is now clouded, lost in some fugue, the origin of Eren cannot fathom; but he can see an opportunity when it is presented to him. As Levi comes back from his thoughts, and twists away as Eren deals another predictable blow; Eren drops low and sweeps Levi’s legs out.

The corporal falls on his back with a loud thud. Dust plumes in the air. Eren is about to apologize, but the corporal only kicks out and Eren loses his balance.  
He falls beside Levi with his arms barely protecting his face from further damage.

Eren groans and turns onto his back.

“That was low, brat,” Levi says tersely, but there is something behind his words. Something that makes Eren smile because, he realizes, he caught Levi off guard and the stoic man is impressed.

“Sorry, sir” Eren says, unable to hide the pride in his voice.

Levi bumps his shoulder as he stands up, brushing the dust off. The corporal extends a hand, easily lifting Eren to his feet. He surveys Eren’s face, his nose still bleeding, and Levi touches the blossoming bruise. Eren flinches but does not pull away.

“You should clean that,” Levi says, then changes his mind. “No, I should clean that. If you did, you would no doubt get an infection.”

“I can clean it, sir,” Eren defends but is excited at the prospect of Levi spending time with him, of Levi taking care of him. He is also mildly offended.

Levi only grunts. “To my quarters. Double time. I have the good first aid supplies there.”

Eren makes it to Levi’s quarters before him, the corporal having split ways at the sparring field. He sits on the floor, too nervous of dirtying the pristine bed by sitting on it with his dirty uniform. The room is just as spotless as Eren had expected. It is also much smaller than he had thought it would be. There is a lone twin bed pushed against the wall under the window, a bathroom just off the foot of it, and a dresser. Levi has no personal mementos to speak of save for a hand stitched quilt on his bed, the colors the same as those of the Survey Corps.

Eventually, the corporal comes in with two glasses of water. He hands one for Eren and places his own on the top of his bureau. He then rifles through the top drawer wordlessly for the first aid kit. Eren takes the moment to appreciate the sight. At some point Levi had shucked his jacket, so that his uniform shirt pulls taut over his shoulders. His uniform khakis hug his ass firmly, no detail left to the imagination and an image Eren savors. Briefly, Eren wonders if Levi had to get his uniform tailored for it to look that good on. He wonders what he would have to do to get that uniform off.

“Go sit on the toilet,” Levi instructs, breaking Eren’s train of thought.

“Yes, sir,” Eren responds out of habit and quickly hurries. The bathroom is as clean as the room, the white tiles sparkling. Eren sits carefully on the toilet and begins to feel a tight knot form in his belly. The realization is just beginning to dawn on him that if Hanji knows he has a crush and, since only Erwin manages scheduling of this magnitude, Erwin knows he has a crush. Logically speaking, Levi must know Eren has a crush. Eren swallows when Levi enters the bathroom, leaning down in front of Eren to dab an alcohol soaked cotton ball by his nose.

Eren whimpers unintentionally.

“Stop complaining, brat,” Levi says tersely but the pressure of the cotton ball lightens. Then it’s swapped out for some gauze that he wipes at his face. The corporal drops it in the trash, bright red with blood.

Levi picks up another gauze the he wets in the sink and then presses it to Eren’s mouth. The pressure is different than how Levi had cleaned his nose and cheek: it’s softer, almost exploratory. Eren watches Levi’s face, how his eyes are staring at his lips now, how the eyelids that are normally crinkled in determination are at half mast. Even his mouth is slightly parted in his concentration. Thinking about Levi’s mouth and how it might feel if Eren were to kiss him, the soldier nervously licks his lower lip. He quickly withdraws his tongue when it ghosts over Levi’s fingers and Eren’s expression becomes horrified. His blush reaches halfway down his torso.

Levi clears his throat and pulls the gauze away. His voice is rougher around the edges when he speaks. “Alright brat, go get yourself cleaned up. I trust you can do that.”

Eren wants to ask Levi to help with that, too, just as he cleaned his face, but Eren bites his tongue. He is also too embarrassed about licking the corporal’s fingers to look him in the eye or say anything to the tune of ‘yes sir’. He only nods and scurries from the room.

Once alone, Levi smiles to himself and runs his thumb over his damp fingers.

When Erwin returns from the exercises in the forest, he is bone tired. The soldiers are, too. They lumber to get their food and fall into their seats. Only Hanji seems to have any energy and Erwin is unfortunate enough to be the target of that energy. Both Corporal Levi and Eren Jaerger are suspiciously absent from the cafeteria.

“So…” Hanji prompts as she sits down next to Erwin. Her eyes scan the room, looking for the two missing people and the smile that lights her face when she realizes they are not there can only be described as fiendish. “Do you think our plan worked?”

Erwin sighs. “I don’t know,” he says. All day guilt had been eating at him that maybe this was a bad idea. Maybe it was too much. While Eren may be too dense to understand what had happened, Levi definitely wasn’t. Any moment the corporal will come up and question him about the unusual circumstances. Or he might not, which Erwin fears more.

“Should we be doing this?” the commander asks after a beat. “Should we really be playing matchmaker just because we are bored?”

“I’m not doing it because I’m bored!” Hanji declares, hand slamming on the table. A few heads turn towards them but a dismissive shake from Erwin makes them glance away. Hanji continues, her tone no more subdued than before. “He likes Levi and I think Heichou likes him, too. They’re just too obsessed with this war to realize it and, let’s face the facts, time is precious as it is. We’re expediting true love is all.”

“That’d doesn’t make sense,” Erwin says thoughtfully. But it does, somehow in this weird messed up world, make sense, and Hanji knows it as she delves into her plate of potatoes. “Are you sure Levi likes him?” Erwin asks.

“Do I like who?” The corporal asks as he sits across from them, startling the two from their own little world. Behind the corporal, Eren enters with a bright bruise on his cheek and sheepish expression. Mikasa immediately stands up to fawn over him, effectively blocking the younger soldier from view.

“I don’t like to repeat myself,” Levi prompts, eyes narrowed as he looks between Hanji and Erwin. The pieces had slid into place a long while ago, so he only sighs when met with the silent responses. “Love isn’t a game, you know,” Levi concludes. “And the brat’s fifteen.”

“If he likes you, he likes you. Love is beyond age,” Hanji says dreamily, head sinking into her palm. Erwin scoots away, somewhat nervous her eccentricity might be contagious.

Levi makes a small noise. Anyone else would assume it was a sigh, but Erwin knows that noise. It is the noise that Levi makes when one of his soldiers does not make it home, when someone vows to avenge a loved one by killing all the titans; it’s the sound of resignation in an unchangeable fate that Levi would prefer didn’t exist.  
While Erwin normally agrees to Levi’s reasons for this small noise, this time is different.

“It’s his choice, isn’t it?” Erwin asks, picking at his food and watching the corporal out of the corner of his eye. “We will back off if you want, but you can’t just decide for him. He can make his own choices.”

Levi makes another small noise, this grunt a little lighter and higher in the throat. Erwin smiles. The corporal is considering the idea.

Erwin kept his promise: Hanji and he backed off. However, backing off did not mean becoming entirely uninvolved. Eren’s duty for laundry day came around again and Erwin happened to leave something in his pocket. Levi was in a meeting with him when he remembered.

“Could you get it for me, please corporal?” Erwin had asked. Levi was never one to question his superior and he would also never admit it, but Levi liked doing nice things for people. So the corporal just gave a curt nod and headed to the wash room.

Hanji had beat him there. She stepped into the room, startling Eren for the second time in as many weeks.

“Levi likes you,” she says quickly. Eren’s face turns bright red, making his turquoise eyes stand out. Hanji fights the urge to pinch his cheeks. “Just remember that he likes you in a wants-to-fuck-your-brains-out kind of way and, yea....”

Hanji quickly leaves, passing Levi in the hallway. She is cackling lowly under her breath as she passes and Levi begins to fear for his life.

“Must have had the best shit of her life this morning…” Levi mumbles to himself, turning down the short corridor to the wash room.

Eren is in there, still frozen in the position Hanji had seen him moments before. His hands are holding one of Petra’s shirt, the tail of it touching the wash bin. Water drips slowly onto the board, the noise irregular and, Levi finds, infuriating. Eren is also bright red and Levi has to hide his appreciation of it.

He is also mildly concerned because he never knew someone could turn such a bright shade.

“Are you alright, brat?” Levi asks. Eren continues to stare ahead, seemingly not hearing his commanding officer.

Levi grunts and crouches beside Eren, pressing the back of his hand to Eren’s forehead. This touch seems to jolt Eren out of his stupor because he flails backwards suddenly. Levi’s eyebrow arches once Eren comes to a stop.

“I shouldn’t have to repeat myself, are you alright or is the cleanliness killing you? Which I’m not surprised considering how dirty you are half the time.”

“You like me,” Eren says without thinking. His mind is still reeling from what Hanji had said and all the subsequent pieces falling into place. The stubbornness that has served Eren well, and in other cases very poorly, swells in him as Levi refuses to glance away and a soft pink dusts his cheek bones.

“What did you say, brat?”

“You like me,” Eren repeats and sits up so that he is only a few inches from Levi. “And I like you. In the romantic sense, and I—“ Eren trails off, unsure of what to say. Levi looks unconvinced. In fact he looks entirely nonplussed save for the light color in his cheeks. Eren swallows, waiting for words that never come. Then he decides to throw caution to the wind and leans forward, meeting Levi’s lips with a bruising kiss. He immediately searches out, tries to deepen the kiss. He barely parts his own lips when the corporal pulls back, eyes widened.

For a moment, Eren thinks he did something wrong, that he made a terrible mistake. Levi touches his fingers softly to his mouth, feeling the slick Eren left and the ghost of the pressure too quickly gone.

“Did you brush your teeth recently?” Levi asks.

Eren’s brows furrow. “Before breakfast when I woke up.”

Levi grimaces. “Only closed mouth kisses then brat.” And Levi leans in to steal another, Eren smiling through it all.

Hanji is in Erwin’s office, waiting for an angry Corporal Levi to come storming in to disown them for their meddling behavior. He never comes and both can hardly stop the smile from crossing their faces.

“Just out of curiosity, what did you leave in your pocket that Levi had to get?” Hanji asks.

“Just a reminder to Levi,” Erwin says and returns to his paperwork. He can feel Hanji’s eyes on him, waiting for a better answer. “It just said ‘remember he likes you, too’. Knowing Levi, he might conveniently forget.”

“But he didn’t,” Hanji singsongs.

Erwin smiles. “No, he didn’t.”


End file.
